Local News

Connections office holds celebration of disability act anniversary

Office opened earlier this year and seeks to promote independence among disabled in northeast Colorado

By Paul Albani-Burgio

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
07/26/2017 07:41:31 PM MDT

"Colonel Connections" made a surprise appearance during Tuesday's celebration of the 27th anniversary of the signing of the ADA at Fort Morgan's new Connections for Independent Living office. "Wherever there are people with disabilities Colonel Connections will be there to help people maintain their independence in the community," he declared to the delight of the celebration's attendees. (Paul Albani-Burgio / Fort Morgan Times)

On Tuesday, a new Fort Morgan office dedicated to helping disabled citizens maintain their independence threw open its doors for a celebration of the 27th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Connections for Independent Living, a Greeley-based organization that seeks "to promote the full inclusion and integration of people with all types of disabilities into all levels of society" by providing a variety of outreach and services that will help them to do so, opened a satellite office at 423 Main Street in Fort Morgan earlier this year.

"We help people to either obtain or maintain their independence in the community so it's a very wide variety of folks that we work with but also a wide variety of services that we provide," said Kevin Thompson, the office's independent living specialist. "For example, we help people to transition out of nursing homes that have the capability of living on their own and help them to develop independent living skills help to and get set up with services in their home. Referrals [for services] are a lot of what we do."

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Connections for Independent Living is one of ten Colorado Centers for Independent Living—a term for an organization that provides an array of independent living services and is designed and operated within a local community by individuals with disabilities. It serves residents of Weld, Morgan, Logan, Washington, Sedgwick, Yuma, and Phillips Counties. The organization decided to open an office in Fort Morgan as it found itself continuously struggling to effectively provide services in many of the rural counties it serves that are more distant from Greeley.

"We are responsible for all of these counties out east [but] we haven't really had a presence out here," Thompson said. "We have occasionally done some mobile outreach where we drive out here and provide some services to folks but it just wasn't cost effective to come all the way from Greeley to areas like Fort Morgan or even Sterling or Julesburg, for that matter. We decided there was a need for something more that's a little bit more centrally located where people can come from some of those outlying counties and we can also go to them more."

The office's celebration of the signing of the ADA, which was open to the public, included pizza, cake and the screening of several videos highlighting the significance of the ADA and its impact on the lives of Americans with disabilities. One video focused on how the ADA had increased access to transportation which had led to greater independence and participation in society among the disabled. Another featured footage of several politicians and advocates discussing their memories of the 1990 signing ceremony and the "perfect moment" when President Bush went to hand his signing pen to a priest who stood behind him as he signed the legislation. That priest had no hands but instead accepted the pen with his foot.

Thompson also surprised attendees by donning a Colonel Connections superhero costume and proclaiming "wherever there are people with disabilities Colonel Connections will be there to help people maintain their independence in the community" to the amusement of those assembled.

Thompson said the office was hosting the celebration in order to bring awareness to the presence of people with disabilities in all walks of life and all communities, including Fort Morgan.

"People are people whether they have a disability or not they have the same kinds of aspirations and the same kinds of goals," he said. "We know people want to live the same kinds of lives as everybody else and live the American dream just like anyone else. I think a big part of what the ADA is all about is providing equal access to whatever type of services anybody might get."

Matthew Bledsoe, who lives in Fort Morgan and has autism, said that one of his favorite videos was one that highlighted the presence of "invisible disabilities" or disabilities which are not physically evident. He said individuals with those disabilities often face added difficulties because people frequently do not understand their disabilities or take them seriously.

Bledsoe said he is thankful for the progress and increased services that have come about as a result of the ADA, which he credits for helping him with his autism and allowing him to stay in school much longer, but says society is still a long way from being fully accessible to people with disabilities. He said several churches in Fort Morgan are not handicap accessible and that crosswalk signals are often not long enough for those in wheelchairs to safely cross the street.

"We live in a really fast-paced environment and some people need to be slowed down," he said.

Thompson, who grew up in Fort Morgan but has spent much of his adult life working with people with mental health issues and developmental disabilities in Greeley before returning to run the Connections Center this year, says he has been impressed by how welcoming the Fort Morgan community has been to his organization.

"Domino's donated the pizzas for today and that's another example of how I've been very impressed by how the community wants to help our organization," he said. "A lot of smaller communities can be closed off but Fort Morgan has been welcoming for Connections."

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